


Come Back

by Harky21



Series: KRTKweek2k16 [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, Pining, librarian kuroo, moon prince tsukki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-19 20:39:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7376614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harky21/pseuds/Harky21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em> "I'm sorry, sir, but we're closing,"  Kuroo called down the aisle to a tall blonde man. </em>
  <br/>
  <em> He didn't respond. </em>
  <br/>
  <em> Kuroo walked further down the aisle, "Sir?" he asked uncertainly. The man still made no response, looking at the window, then down at his hands, like he was dazed. It was only as Kuroo got closer that he realized the odd clothes he was wearing. They... he couldn't actually place exactly what they looked like. Nothing he had seen on the younger library goers. The loose top shimmered when he shifted, a pale yellow, almost like the moon. Dark brown pants hugged his legs, giving way to black leather boots at the knee. </em>
  <br/>
  <em> The man abruptly turned. The dim light of the stacks catching his golden locks. His gaze landed on Kuroo, narrowing his bespectacled eyes like he had somehow offended him. </em>
  <br/>
  <em> "Where am I?" he demanded. </em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come Back

"I still search for you in crowds,  
in empty fields and soaring clouds.  
In city lights and passing cars,  
on winding roads and wishing stars."

— Lang Leav (Lullabies)

* * *

His steps quickened, heartbeat rising, as he chased after a tall blond head in the station.

_Kei? Is that Kei? Is he back?!_

Walking turned into running, he grabbed the other man's shoulder, twisting him back. "Kei!"

His heart dropped.

A stranger looked at him angry and confused. "What?" they barked out.

"S-sorry," he stuttered out. "I thought you were someone else."

The man shakes his head in annoyance before going through the train gates.

Tetsurou continued to stand there, people jostling him as they rushed to wherever they were going.

"Move!" A man finally grunted frustratedly as he tried to make it to the train gate.

So Tetsurou did. He turned, starting to make his way back to the library along twilight streets. It was a brisk, cool day, the streetlights only just starting to glow. He followed the line of red brick houses and walls back to the library. The brick gave way to the open green grass of the park. Tetsurou turned down the winding path to the employee door of the library. It would be open only a few more hours.

Pushing open the old, heavy cedar door, entering the warmly lit back office, he shrugged off his peacoat and hung it on the rack.

"Tetsurou, there're some more books that need shelving. Would you mind doing this round?" Yaku asked out from his desk.

"Yeah, sure," he agrees. "What level?"

"Third," he states, eyes still focused on the database he's been working on creating for the children's book workshop.

Tetsurou swallows then nods in understanding, quickly checking his computer once for emails before he takes the appropriate cart and heads towards the elevators.

Once there, he begins weaving in and out of the shelves, placing the books back in their homes one by one, his stomach turning into knots as he gets closer.

And then he reaches it. The stained glass window at the back of the third floor. It's not a particularly large or fascinating thing. Just a young golden haired man, resting against a crescent moon, surrounded by midnight blue looking out over the park. It's simple. The glass is really just blocks of color, a suggestion of what it should be. The moon and man only taking up the upper righthand corner.

The sight tugs at his chest, just as it always does, and the feeling of emptiness that had started earlier takes full hold.

This is where he first met Kei.

* * *

"I'm sorry, sir, but we're closing,"  Tetsurou called down the aisle to a tall blonde man.

He didn't respond.

Tetsurou walked further down the aisle, "Sir?" he asked uncertainly. The man still made no response, looking at the window, then down at his hands, like he was dazed. It was only as Tetsurou got closer he realized the odd clothes the man was wearing. They... he couldn't actually place exactly what they looked like. Nothing he had seen on the younger library goers. The loose top shimmered when he shifted, a pale yellow, almost like the moon. Dark brown pants hugged his legs, giving way to black leather boots at the knee.

The man abruptly turned. The dim light of the stacks catching his golden locks. His gaze landed on Tetsurou, narrowing his bespectacled eyes  like he had somehow offended him.

"Where am I?" he demanded.

"Umm, Nekoma Public Library. The main branch. Sir, do you need help?" Tetsurou tried to venture.

"I've never heard of... Nekoma. Is it across the Vertsen Sea?" he asked, confusion in his eyes.

"Umm, no, it's in Tokyo?"  Tetsurou tried. He was about to reach in his pocket for his phone, but the name of the sea sounded naggingly familiar.

"How far am I away from Mooncrest?" he whispered more to himself that to Tetsurou. _Mooncrest?_

"Umm, sir, are you lost, I can call the police. They can help." _Mooncrest. Why did that sound so familiar?_

The young man was silent, like he was calculating something. His eyes shot back up to meet Tetsurou's. They were beautiful. Soft honey, speckled with gold. Tetsurou wasn't sure he had ever seen someone so beautiful. The man was almost... hypnotizing.

"Are you in league with Eagleston? Did you have me ported back here to capture me?" he asked accusingly.

"I, I really have no idea what you're talking about. Look, sir, come down to the main office and,"

"You dare give an order to a prince!?"

Tetsurou's brow creased more in confusion. _Prince? What is he..._ And then he saw it. The book, at the feet of the young man before him.

"What's your name?" Tetsurou ventured. Not sure he would believe the answer he was expecting.

"Prince Kei Tsukishima. Now explain to me exactly where I am!"

Tetsurou blinked, eyes going wide. _How could this even be happening?_ He, the man, he was the Moon Prince? Then that’d mean...

"You're not in your world anymore," he whispered out, stunned.

" _My_ world? What do you mean, not in _my world_?" The blond's brow creased again.

Tetsurou points to the book at the other man's feet, walking hesitantly closer.

The blond glanced down, then back up to Tetsurou, his eyes narrowed. He bent down to pick up the well worn hard back. One Tetsurou had read many, many years ago as a boy, a favorite in his youth, forgotten in adulthood. He barely remembered it now.

" _The Moon Prince_ ," Kei read out, eyeing Tetsurou again, but he opened the book, eyes growing wider with every page he flipped. Then the book dropped to the floor, landing open on a perfect image of the man before him. Tetsurou bent to pick it back up, shaking his head in disbelief.

The two young men locked eyes again.

“How, did you...?”

“I didn’t,” Tetsurou replies.

“If it wasn't you… Then _how_? ”

Tetsurou continued to shake his head. He really had no clue.

The blond eyed him again, then snatched the book back. Flipping through the pages again more fervently.

He turned his back to Tetsurou.

_What in the world am I supposed to do with a book character?_

“Um, let’s go to the break room. Then we can… start trying to figure out what happened,” Tetsurou suggested, turning to head back downstairs. He couldn’t have… Kei… walking around the library now.

The blond glared at him from over his shoulder. “I still don't know if I can trust you,” he retorted.

Tetsurou raised his brow, “So you'd prefer me to leave you here and close the library? Because if that's the case I'm turning the lights out and going home.”

The blond’s brow knit. “Where is this room you speak of?”

“Down two floors.”

Kei nodded and when Tetsurou turned again he followed.

Tetsurou didn't notice the window, where a prince sitting on the moon, was now looking in.

* * *

Tetsurou headed back to the office after he finished shelving the books.

Yaku looked up from his computer for once, "If you want to go home early, I can close up for the night."

Tetsurou smiled at his friend. "No, it's ok. I'll do it."

"Tetsurou," Yaku sighs, and he already knows what's coming before the short, sandy haired man says the rest.

"I promise I'm getting enough sleep and eating, Yaku. Closing the library won't kill me," he smirks.

"Except you have perpetual bruises under your eyes and you really think I haven't noticed how much weight you've lost?" The concern in his co-workers eyes makes him feel guilty.

"It's fine. Just a rough patch," Tetsurou replies.

"A rough patch that's lasted the last three months," Yaku says accusingly.

"I'll close tonight. You can close tomorrow. Ok?" Tetsurou ends the conversation before they get can get to the reason. Yaku is one of the only people who _knows_ the reason, and Tetsurou really didn't want to discuss it.

Tetsurou only looked back at Yaku when he didn't reply.

"You know I'd get you if he came while you weren't here, right?" he asked softly.

Tetsurou's face fell at the words, "Yeah, I do," he whispers in reply.

"Just, don't beat yourself up over something you can't control, Tetsurou, ok? It's kinda hard to watch a friend hurt when you can't help," Yaku said, turning his attention back to the computer to hide his face.

Lips turning up slightly at his friend's concern, "Thanks, Yaku."

The smaller man gives him a small smile in response.

The rest of the evening, Tetsurou went through his normal actions, walking the stacks, checking the PCs, turning off the lights.

Once it was all done, he took the stack of books that lived at his desk now. The entire works K. C. Jensen, Kei's creator. _Can a sentient being have a creator, even if they're from a book? If their knowledge and daily life goes beyond the pages?_ He'd been through each work multiple times by now, trying to learn and understand more about the world beyond the pages. Trying to figure out how to get Kei back, or himself there.

He looked at the diagram of the window Kei had drawn only a few months ago.

The last time he saw Kei was by that window. _Kei's window_.

When Kei had made it back to his world three months ago, Tetsurou had only learned one thing, that the book and the window had to be aligned in a certain way.

That was it, that was all he had to work off of. The book needed to be on the shelf.

He didn't know if something on Kei's side had to happen too. It seemed it did from the way Kei had talked about it. _"The only way magic works in my world is if very specific conditions are filled. We must have triggered those conditions somehow when I crossed over. We just have to reset them."_  Not to mention, Kei's world was the one with magic.

So Tetsurou did what he could. Make sure the book was in the correct position, and hope.

He'd tried other things. He'd tried recreating everything he could think of from his side, from the time of day, to the spot he saw Kei standing, even the clothes Tetsurou had been wearing that day.

Nothing worked.

He held his copy the book up. He'd somehow managed to get the exact edition, even with the same complicated swirling design on the cover.

At this point he knew every single word in it, he'd read it through so many times, for a clue, anything, that meant he could see Kei again. It was infuriating.

He tossed the book to the side and looked at his notes again.

What was he doing wrong?

It was like everything was an accident. Nothing on this side made sense and Tetsurou hated it.

Kei had been in this world for five months before one day he was somehow in the right place at the right time again.

And went back. Tetsurou didn't even get the chance to say goodbye.

* * *

“Is it something celestial? I mean, your society is based around the night sky. Right?” Tetsurou had been trying to grasp what Kei was explaining. There was so much not explained in the book Kei came from. Tetsurou had read it at least three times by that point.

The prince clicked his tongue, "My society is not 'based' around the night sky. Some of the magic we use needs certain star alignments so the night sky becomes important. But you can still do simple things like make light."

"Make light with what?"

"Anything," Kei continued scrawling something on the paper before him. He seemed to have a better idea of what was happening than Tetsurou did.

"Like, your hand?"

"If that's what the Kindler desires," he replied again.

"And a Kindler just means the person using the magic, correct? It's not the title of their status?" Tetsurou asked. Kei had been throwing unknown terminology around like Tetsurou was some sort of Mooncrest expert, well he was getting there.

"Yes. And I've told you before," the blond looks up at him, "anyone can use magic in my world."

"Yeah, well no one can use it here," Tetsurou replied, frustrated. The blond hadn't exactly been the friendliest. He snapped a lot and ignored the librarian. But Tetsurou found he couldn't exactly hold it against him. He was in a completely new world

"Then what is keeping this room lit?" He asked pointedly, but Tetsurou could see the spark of interest in his eye.

"Electricity."

"So magic here is called electricity?" Kei asked uncertainly.

"Not exactly" Tetsurou shook his head. "It's science."

"So science is your magic?" There was a furrow in the blonds brow that made Tetsurou smile.

"Kinda of? In a way?" Tetsurou tried to explain. "But science has rules and laws, theory and methodology. It comes from the observation and study of our world. People take what they learn in science and then try to find a way to use it."

"But you can't use it automatically?" He asked.

"Yeah, so if we didn't have electricity and light bulbs, we wouldn't be able to make light just appear."

"How strange," Kei mused, turning back to his notes.

It was the first time Tetsurou thought he wanted to kiss him.

Tetsurou pulled the door tight one more time, checking that it was locked and keyed in the code for the alarm.

He turned to the winding path back out to the street. Lamps making stark circles of light in the dark.

He began walking, thinking of the number of times the light and shadows had tricked him into thinking he was seeing someone he wasn’t.

Stepping off the path and into the grass he made his way over to the small hill and lay back on its slope.

The chill of winter was creeping in on the wind, but this was where he felt closest to Kei. He'd lay out in this field more times than he could count by now.

He searched the stars in the sky and the clouds that unfurled, shifting and changing hoping some clue or hint, or hell even a revelation, would come to him.

It never did, but that didn't stop him.

Who knew three months could feel like an eternity when you were trapped with only memories, and trying to find a way in, or a way out.

But it wasn’t that easy. Finding your way in and out of a book.

It had only happened twice. Once when Kei came, and then when Kei had gone back.

Half the time he still couldn’t believe it had happened.

It was stupid really.

He shouldn't have even _let_ it happen.

Falling in love with a prince.

And not just any prince, but a fictional one at that.

He laughed at himself. _Falling in love with a character from a book. How many young girls out there would love to be in my position?_

* * *

Kei was sitting silently at one of the front tables looking out the window.

He’d taken to sitting there, as the sun set and day fell into night, a book in hand, but he was never reading it then. He was always watching the sky.

Tetsurou found himself more than once watching him then. The pale curls that framed his face, the curve of his jaw, the melancholy look in his eyes. _What must it be like to be in a completely new world?_

As purple haze of dusk slipped into night, Tetsurou stepped forward.

“Hey, Kei,” the blond turned to him. “Do you want to go stargazing?” he asked with a small smile.

The blond nodded slowly, a curious look in his eyes.

“Come on then,” Tetsurou nodded his head toward the door main door.

He led the blond to the small hill at to the side of the library, laying down once he reached the slope.

To his surprise Kei followed suit without protest.

They settled in, looking up at the few stars that were bright enough to make it past the light pollution of the city.

“I haven’t done this in a very long time,” Tetsurou says after a bit.

"You don't do this often here?" Kei asked, looking questioningly at Tetsurou.

He chuckled, “Not here per say, I know people with clearer skies do it quite often, but as you’ve probably noticed, you can’t see that many stars in big cities.”

Kei was silent, contemplating.

“I would do this back in Mooncrest with my older brother all the time when we were young,” he whispered.

Tetsurou didn’t respond. Kei had told him so much about Mooncrest in the last few months, but he rarely talked of his life there.

“It’s weird, to be looking at a different sky,” he continued. “I can’t name a single star here.”

“Do you miss it?” Tetsurou finally asks.

Kei’s silent for a moment. “Yes… and no.”

“Why no?”

Kei looked straight up, away from Tetsurou.

“There are a lot of rules, when you’re a prince,” he whispered. “They’re all very logical and well founded, but it wears on you sometimes.”

Tetsurou nodded in response.

“And there are some things here that I like. Like ice cream. We don’t have that where I’m from,” he continued.

“You have strawberries though, right?” Tetsurou teased.

“Of course we do,” he thought he saw a flicker of a smile, but it was quickly gone.

“What is it?” Tetsurou whispers, suddenly aware of how close they are, how he could simply move a finger and touch the other man’s hand.

“My city is at war, and I’m laying on the grass in another world,” Kei’s brow furrowed. “It’s… strange.”

Tetsurou turns to his side, his hand finding the blond’s. To his surprise, the other doesn’t pull away, but turns towards the black haired man.

“Tetsurou,” Kei looked him straight in the eyes.

“Yes?”

“I need to get back...” he whispered, a sadness in his eyes.

The words stung, but then the blond continued, “but part of me doesn’t want to go.”

Tetsurou didn’t have words. He couldn’t demand Kei stay because he was feeling the stirrings of something bigger in his chest. He couldn’t tell him to try and leave immediately either. He didn’t want him too.

So he didn’t respond, he just leaned in closer, his forehead touching Kei’s, a sadness settling over him. A sadness this moment couldn’t last.

And then he felt another pair lips on his own, soft and sweet.

He had wanted to kiss Kei for what seemed like ages at this point.

It was better than he could ever imagine.

* * *

He flipped the book closed. Tetsurou’d had a long week. Each attempt at finding a new lead fruitless in the end and he couldn't stand rereading the same lines again anymore. He glanced at the time. 1:00AM. He'd already been at it for about three hours. It was frustrating not getting anywhere. There wasn't even any literature on this. (He was a research librarian. If there was he would've found it by now).

He studied, Kei's drawing of the window again. The precision of the lines. The notches here and there for measurement. _I need to go look at it again. I might be missing something._

Tetsurou sighed, placing the paper down. He'd already looked at it more times than he could count. The window was simple. It lacked intricacy, but in such a way that you filled in the detail yourself.

He glanced down at it again, then away.

_Wait!_

He his eyes snapped back, whipping back and forth between the paper and the book. The cover… the lines on the cover.

He looked back to the paper, the marks on the edges.

_How could I have been so stupid?!_

Tetsurou sprinted up the stairs, taking two at a time, turning lights on as he went. Once he reached the third level ran to the aisle he knew all too well. He held his copy of the book in hand, looking between the cover and the stained glass window.

_The book was never on the shelf either time… It was on the floor._

Tetsurou looks at the shadow cast by the moon into the dimly lit corner.

How had he not realized this before? It was so obvious.

The intricate cover of the book… It filled in the lines of the boy and moon.

He kneeled down, hands shaking, as he set the book down, aligning the shadows with the tendrils of the book.

Once done he took a step back, and waited.

Nothing happened.

Tetsurou sighed, disheartened.

_Of course it could never be that…_

The book began to emit a soft glow. _Like the moon._

He continued to watch. The glow grew and grew, slowly building to form the shape of a man.

There was a flash of light, Kuroo raised an arm to shield his eyes.

When he lowered his arm again, a tall, slim, fair haired young man with a soft smile stood before him.

"Kei,” he breathed out.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't get much chance to edit this one. I'll probably come back to it tomorrow. Let me know if there's any glaring errors! Thank you! Also thank you for reading!! (I'd love to know what you think, good or constructive criticism, I tried something new here).


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